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I got a degree and graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. I don't think my college education has been anywhere near as valuable to me as reading software en

I got a degree and graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. I don't think my college education has been anywhere near as valuable to me as reading software engineering books and coding a lot has been. If I could do it all over again, I would save the $60,000 and buy a sailboat.

dorkwood 7y ago
Any book recommendations?
barbellguy97 7y ago
What do you think about getting a Masters degree in a non-specialized field (e.g. Software Engineering and not Artificial Intelligence) while having a Bachelors degree already? I am currently at the crossroads of going into work, a masters degree or both. Am also currently an intern at a FAANG atm.
- matwood 7y ago
  I did my masters while working. My job at the time paid for it, and there was a good school in the area. I found it fun because I was exposed to things I wouldn't have gotten exposed to in my job (programming language design, automata theory, etc...), but those things also didn't change my salary or future job prospects. If you find learning in a structured environment fun and can get someone else to pay for it, a masters may be right for you :)
ggambetta 7y ago
> I don't think my college education has been anywhere near as valuable to me as reading software engineering books and coding a lot But how would you know that? I thought I was a pretty decent programmer when I started college - I had been programming since I was 5! But a five-year engineering degree gave me some much-needed structure around the things I already knew, and filled massive gaps in knowledge I didn't even know I had.
honkycat 7y ago
I agree with that 100%. I am a voracious reader, I love software engineering and productivity and fiction and Syfy and nonfiction and... You get the idea. I have a previous comment on this site about reading. That is actually what I look for, intellectual curiosity and a desire to continue learning and growing. I'll just quote myself: """ What I look for in a developer: READS BOOKS. ( Audio books count ) That's the only thing. I'm sorry, if you are not reading and studying to keep up, you are getting left behind. There are so many brilliant people writing amazing books on a huge array of subjects. If I could get every one of my developers to read ONE book on software design[0] a year, I would die happy and the entire industry would be 10 years ahead. They don't even have to be technical books. I just want to see intellectual curiosity and a commitment to self improvement. - 0: In the vein of Clean Architecture, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man Month, Designing Data-Intensive Applications, The Google SRE book, etc """

dorkwood 7y ago

Any book recommendations?

barbellguy97 7y ago

What do you think about getting a Masters degree in a non-specialized field (e.g. Software Engineering and not Artificial Intelligence) while having a Bachelors degree already? I am currently at the crossroads of going into work, a masters degree or both. Am also currently an intern at a FAANG atm.

matwood 7y ago
I did my masters while working. My job at the time paid for it, and there was a good school in the area. I found it fun because I was exposed to things I wouldn't have gotten exposed to in my job (programming language design, automata theory, etc...), but those things also didn't change my salary or future job prospects. If you find learning in a structured environment fun and can get someone else to pay for it, a masters may be right for you :)

ggambetta 7y ago

> I don't think my college education has been anywhere near as valuable to me as reading software engineering books and coding a lot But how would you know that? I thought I was a pretty decent programmer when I started college - I had been programming since I was 5! But a five-year engineering degree gave me some much-needed structure around the things I already knew, and filled massive gaps in knowledge I didn't even know I had.

honkycat 7y ago

I agree with that 100%. I am a voracious reader, I love software engineering and productivity and fiction and Syfy and nonfiction and... You get the idea. I have a previous comment on this site about reading. That is actually what I look for, intellectual curiosity and a desire to continue learning and growing. I'll just quote myself: """ What I look for in a developer: READS BOOKS. ( Audio books count ) That's the only thing. I'm sorry, if you are not reading and studying to keep up, you are getting left behind. There are so many brilliant people writing amazing books on a huge array of subjects. If I could get every one of my developers to read ONE book on software design[0] a year, I would die happy and the entire industry would be 10 years ahead. They don't even have to be technical books. I just want to see intellectual curiosity and a commitment to self improvement. - 0: In the vein of Clean Architecture, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man Month, Designing Data-Intensive Applications, The Google SRE book, etc """